This is Living Waters of Grace, the teaching ministry of Clark
Waffer, senior pastor of Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland, County
of Greensburg, PA. Now here's Pastor Clark as he
continues teaching through God's Word.
The world system is a system where people live against God.
They have no conscience. They have no conception of good
or evil. They just basically do whatever
they want to do. They're under the influence, the
Bible says, of the Prince of the power of the air.
Who's Satan? He's the one that blinds people
to their need of a savior. He's the one that tells you it's
not hip to follow Christ. It's not cool to be a Christian.
It's better to follow the ways of darkness.
Throughout history, we see nations conquering nations.
There were times when that might have meant just wiping people
out and taking their land. But many times the people were
given a choice to pledge their loyalty to the conquering nation
and assimilate into its culture. In today's message, Pastor Clark
wants you to know that even if you live in this world, you
don't have to pledge your loyalty to it.
As a Christian, your loyalty belongs to Christ, and you have
no part in the Kingdom of darkness.
Now here's Pastor Clark in Revelation Chapter 17 with
today's edition of Living Waters of Grace.
Revelation 17 and some of your bibles will have a sub heading
over the chapter. Mine says a scarlet woman and
the scarlet Beast. Sounds like a good title for a
movie, huh? And it's fascinating that we're
living in these days of the religious world of Babylon.
We talk about Babylon as at one time being a literal city in the
Mideast, and it will rise up again in the last days to be the
place of power for the Antichrist to roll into reign.
But we are also living in this time of Babylon now, which is
also seen and described in the history of the church as the
world system. And unfortunately, we are all
part of this religious Babylon. We're living in the world.
The Bible tells us we're in the world, but we're not to be of
the world. Amen.
But we are all being exposed to the falseness of the religious
system that is coming up on our country right now and the rest
of the world. And so we'll get into that in in
a couple minutes. But we studied back in
Revelation chapter 16, verse 19 and chapter 14, verse 8,
declaring the history of the eventual destruction and fall of
Babylon. And in Revelation 17 and 18,
which is what we're going to be studying the next several weeks,
the fall of Babylon is very carefully detailed.
It's interesting. Babylon is mentioned in the
Bible 287 times in the Scriptures, more than any other
city except for Jerusalem. Babylon at one time, as I said,
was a literal city on the Euphrates River.
In Genesis Chapter 11, verse one through 9, we see right after
the flood that Babylon was the seed of the civilization of the
world at that time, and it was a place that expressed organized
hostility toward God. It's where the tower Babel was.
If you remember when all those folks thought that they could
figure out the secrets of the universe, if they build a tower
high enough into the heavens, they would be able to find out
what was happening behind the curtain, so to speak.
Later on, Babylon was the capital of the empire that
cruelly conquered Judah. To the Jews, Babylon was the
essence of all evil, the embodiment of cruelty, the foe
of God's people, and the lasting type of sin, carnality, lust and
greed. In John's day, the apostle
John's day, the city of Rome was seen as a type of this city of
Babylon. It was and and a sense Babylon
at that time because it antagonized and opposed the
Christians faith. Now, when you think about cities
today and where we live, you might think of the most
decadent, ungodly cities in the nation.
Usually they're the cities that have the most population, like
Los Angeles or New York City. We think of Paris and and some
other places in the world that just have a tendency to be
cities that are set up to live in all kind of depravity and all
kind of immorality and ungodliness and greed and lust.
And they're cities that are, for the most part, clearly forsaking
God and their political decisions and how they lead
their communities. The concept of Babylon is even
more intense, as we'll study in Revelation 17 and 18 here in the
next couple weeks. The reign of Antichrist is
spreading around the world today, even though he's
literally not a real person as of yet.
But today and throughout history we see Babylon as the world
system and under the Antichrist it will even be more evident
when he is set up on the earth as never seen before.
Ephesians chapter 2, verse two and three.
This is what it describes about the world and about where many
of us were at one time and where some of you still maybe are.
It says at one time you walked according to the course of this
world, according to the Prince of the power of the air, the
Spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also
we all once conducted ourselves in the lust of the flesh,
fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind.
And we're by nature children of wrath just as others.
So the world system is a system where people live against God.
They have no conscience. They have no conception of good
or evil. They just basically do whatever
they want to do. They're under the influence, the
Bible says, of the Prince of the power of the air.
Who's Satan. He's the one that blinds people
to their need of a savior. He's the one that tells you it's
not hip to follow Christ. It's not cool to be a Christian.
It's better to follow the ways of darkness.
There's a propensity in the human heart before we become
Christians to want to follow the Prince of the power of the air.
We believe that there's a God, but before we know Christ, our
God is the God of this world, the Bible says, and it's Satan
himself. It says he's the spirit who now
works. And everyone who's rebelling
against God, everyone who hates God, everyone who denies God,
everyone who's walking away from God is controlled by this spirit
of Antichrist. And it says at one time all of
us, not the some of us, all of us lived in some degree in the
lust of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of what our fallen
nature dictated to us. And we were by nature children
of wrath, meaning enemies of God, even as the rest of the
human race. So the only hope for people is
Jesus Christ, because later on in that chapter it says, but God
in his rich mercy when we were dead in Christ has quickened us
together with Christ. By grace you are saved.
So unless Christ came to pull us up out of that darkness and out
of that place of rebellion, all of us would be doomed, right?
Aren't you glad that Christ reached down to you when you
weren't perhaps looking for Him, but He drew you to Himself?
He called you to Himself and pulled you out of this wicked
system of this world? Not the beauty of creation that
God has made. The oceans, the mountains, the
rivers, the wildlife, the forests, all the wonderful
things of God's creation has been defiled by the evil 1 And
so instead of man looking at the creation and worshiping and
glorifying God, man ignores the creation, acts like there is no
God, and changes the worship of God for the worship of the
creators. It tells us in Romans chapter 1.
And God eventually gives those who worship this world system
over to a reprobate mind to do the things that are convenient
for them. And that gets into all the
sorted sexual perversions that are so rampant and prevalent on
the face of the earth today. It tells us in first John
chapter 2, verse 15 and 17. You might want to just flip over
there. That's just a little bit to the
left of the Book of Revelation there.
And this also describes the present world system that we're
living in right now. And this tells us in first John
chapter 2 verse 15, it says do not love the world or the things
in the world, meaning do not love the world system are the
things that are in the world system.
If anyone loves the world or the world system, the love of the
Father is not in him for all that is in the world.
Again, the world system, the lust of the flesh, the lust of
the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of
the world system of the world and the world or the world
system is passing away and the lust of it.
But he who does the will of God abides forever.
So much of what you and I are impacted with or by daily,
whether it's the media, the television, the movie industry,
the music industry, the publications, the Internet, it
we're being bombarded by the Prince of the power of the air.
He's in control of the media. He's in control of the Airways,
the marketing strategies. Talked to someone yesterday and
and this woman, she hasn't watched TV.
She said a long time and she told me that she was visiting
some relatives and they had the TV on.
They were watching some kind of sports thing.
And what was being advertised on the TV and how it was being
portrayed would have been seen as being pornography when she
was a little girl. But we have been so like watered
down. We're like the frogs in the
frying pan. Our conscience isn't even
bothered by some of the stuff that we see and hear anymore,
not realizing that we're collectively, even as
Christians, being sucked in by the world system.
Many of us are impacted by the fashion industry and we look and
we say, well, this is what the world's wearing.
This is what I got to wear, or this is what the world's
watching. I got to watch it, or this is
what the world's buying and I got to buy it.
And we're not supposed to be of this world, right?
Jesus says, my Kingdom is not of this world system.
He says come out from among them and be separate, sayeth the
Lord. And so we see in first John
chapter 2, the apostle John who also is writing in the Book of
Revelation talks about this world system of being full of
lust and pride. The definition for lust is self
absorbed desire for an object, person or experience.
You place it above all things in your life, especially God.
Have you ever been guilty of that?
I have lust. It makes you leave the path of
the holiness of the person of God and begin to have a desire
for something that is independent of His will.
Pride, the definition of pride, independence of the Creator God.
I'm going to do this. I'm going to do that.
I'm going to go here, I'm going to buy this.
I'm going to without ever running it by the Lord.
Independence of the creator God, living as though he doesn't even
exist. Living like there is no
judgement Day. Inordinate self focus.
The esteem of self that you're better than everyone else.
An unreasonable conceit of 1's own superiority and talents,
beauty, wealth and rank or position of life.
The contempt of God, the contempt of humility, the
contempt of love, and the contempt of living and sacrifice
for the sake of God's Kingdom and others.
That's the definition of pride. So in the last days in the world
system, it says men will be lovers of themselves rather than
lovers of God. And you see it everywhere,
right? And we're also impacted by it,
aren't we? If we're honest, we all get
sucked into it to some extent. And that's why we have to
continually ask the Lord to search our hearts and to purify
us that we be holy even as He is holy.
In the Revelation chapter 17, verse one and two, it says, then
one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and talked
with me, saying to me, come, I will show you the judgment of
the great harlot who sits on many waters, with whom the kings
of the earth committed fornication and the inhabitants
of the earth were made drunk with the wine or for
fornication. Again, we're seeing here
describe religious Babylon described by this Angel.
Here it says, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot
and thank the Lord that one day this world system will be
judged. I hate seeing what it does to
people. I hate seeing how it destroys
marriages and causes young people to rebel against their
parents and how the systems of education now in the world are
anti God and contrary to God, pushing evolution and scientific
theory above the fact that we have been created in the image
and likeness of God. I hate seeing young people who
are growing up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord
getting sent off to colleges where many of these colleges
unfortunately are destroying the very faith that these young
people wants to firm. I hate seeing what it does when
parents send their kids off to school and the kids are being
tempted to do what the world does, drink and have sexual
immorality and take drugs and not follow the paths and the
ways of God. But one day the Bible says that
this fate of the suddenly girl ungodly world system will be
destroyed. And as far as I'm concerned, the
sooner the better. Amen.
That's what the early church was right like they cried out, come
quickly, Lord Jesus. They were living in such
persecution and such difficulty with the Roman Empire.
I mean, to be a believer in those days, it cost you your
life. And so people were martyred and
they were persecuted and they were in prison.
And so the body of Christ, they saw the intensity of the
wickedness of the world and they want it out of the world.
And today, unfortunately, we don't sense that.
As I said, we're like the frogs in the frying pan and the heat's
being turned up and we don't realize how we're compromising
our very lives in Christ. We have to come out and be
separate, saith the Lord. So the system of Babylon, the
interesting fact that existed long before Christianity even
came into play, and yet it was aware of the fact that one day
the Messiah would one day come. The system of Babylon again
controlled by the devil and the devil's whole concern and
interest in his Kingdom is to keep people from coming to know
Jesus Christ. And this is some interesting
history here and some people say it may, it may be legend, but
there's some similarities and weaving into the Scripture
regarding this story I'm about to tell you.
They believe that this concept of Babylon was founded by
Nimrod's wife. Her name was Simarius SEMIRAMIS
Simmer Miss or something like that.
She was a high priestess of idol worship.
She gave birth to his son, birth miraculously.
Her son's name was Thomas and he was considered a savior.
There's even ancient artifacts that have been dug up throughout
the years that point back to this and shows her as pictures
showing her holding the savior infant Tamas.
He was killed supposedly by a wild beast and miraculously
brought back to life. And Bahel was the local
Canaanite name for the Babylonian tamas.
So it's interesting how it's it's similar to the story of
Christianity, right, with Christ and what he's done.
What's interesting, it's referenced in the Babylonian
religion and Ezekiel touches on this and Ezekiel 814 he's
speaking about and protesting against the ceremony of weeping
for this person named Tammuz. TAMMUZ Jeremiah 718 mentions the
heathen practice and making cake for the queen of heaven.
Jeremiah 44 also speaks of offering incense to the queen of
heaven. So there there is this legend
and also biblical history that ties into this story and
teaching that Babylon and in this section of Scripture
speaking about this scarlet woman, this evil ungodly
representation of someone who would call themselves the queen
of heaven is a part of this ungodly, wicked system.
It says that this one sits on many waters.
And if you look at verse 15 of chapter 17, it says, he said to
me, the waters which you saw where the harlot sits are
peoples, multitudes, nations and tongues.
So the Antichrist will preside over many nations.
The unification we see today, the One World Church, believe it
or not, we don't maybe sense it here because we're not part of
it. But the Church is moving toward
this interest in becoming under one world ruler, 1 spiritual
leader, one religious authority. If you're familiar with the
World World Council of Churches, made-up of Orthodox Catholic
Protestants, it's amazing what this organization is about.
It has nothing to do with the scriptures.
It has everything to do with humanism.
It's let's set up a religion in this world that has nothing to
do with anything that's going to get anybody uptight.
We're basically going to make it up as we go along and we're not
going to mention God really other other than a theory.
And we're certainly not going to mention that Jesus Christ is the
Messiah and the only way to the Father.
And so these so-called religious leaders of these many
denominations and big powerful spiritual entities are corrupt
and they're bringing in all kind of false religion,
representatives from apostate Catholicism and apostate
Protestantism and apostate orthodoxy.
And they're bringing in all these other religions of the
world. It's called syncretism.
They're bringing in the the Mormons and the Jehovah
Witnesses and the Hindus and the Sikhs and the Muslims and this
whole idea of having this simple organization that will rule the
world spiritually, which is represented here as this great
harlot in Revelation chapter 17. This woman represents the false
religions and the tribulation and not just corruption of the
Vatican. And we know the Vatican has a
lot of problems today. It's it's common knowledge.
I mean, it isn't anybody's particular opinion.
It's documented through the legal courts right now of all
the ungodly things that have happened in the name of
Catholicism. And we can come up with plenty
for Protestant Protestantism, too.
It isn't just the Catholic Church, it's a Protestant Church
too, where they're teaching deceptive doctrines, seducing
spirits, doctrines of demons, and this is what the devil
specializes in. It says in the last days people
will give heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons.
It's amazing when you study these different denominations or
religious groups to find out what their trust is in their
trust many times is in the magisteria, magisterialism.
Their, their trust is in the, the ceremonies of the church.
Their trust is in anything and anything but Jesus Christ.
And this is what's happening in these days that we're we're
living as well, the compromise of our world leaders, our our
government leaders, the compromise of our churches and
our pastors and our people that are supposed to be pointing
people to the truth are continually watering down.
And it's almost like what Karl Marx said.
And he said something that was really true, even though he was
a extreme atheist and heretic. He said religion is the opiate
of the masses. And if you want to retranslate
that in a Christian way, false religion is a deception of the
Antichrist. And we see that happening today
everywhere. It's amazing what people are
saying. You know, there's all roads lead
to heaven. This is the common thing that
you hear. It doesn't matter what you
believe as long as you believe something.
Anybody that doesn't know the truth will tell you that they
just want to water it down. Second Timothy chapter 4, verse
three and four says for the time will come, well, they will not
endorse sound doctrine. Well, the time has come, people
will not endorse sound doctrine, but according to their own
desires because they have itching ears.
Tell me, you know, basically tell me what I want to hear, not
what I need to hear. They will heap up for themselves
teachers and will turn their ears away from the truth and be
turned aside. The fables like Diwali, like
Babylonian New Age heresies. If you turn to 2nd Thessalonians
chapter 2, verse 9 through 12, this also speaks of the coming
of the lawless 1, the Antichrist, the coming, and
verse nine of the lawless 1 is, according to the working of
Satan, with all power signs and lying wonders and with all
unrighteousness deception among those who perish because they
did not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved.
So people who are blowing off the truth and ignoring it and
walking away from it and want to be part of the world system,
they don't have any love for the truth that they might be saved.
And so it says in verse 11. And for this reason God will
send them a strong delusion that they should believe the lie,
that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth
but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
Verse one and two, it talks about this scarlet woman who
makes the inhabitants of the earth are made drunk with the
wine of her fornication. How she does this, she gets
people to compromise. The world system gets people to
compromise with spiritual idolatry.
You know, a Christian has no business sitting in Zen prayer
circles. A Christian has no business in
being involved in yoga. A Christian has no business
being involved in any of the eastern religions because they
are all Pagan. But today it's amazing.
Churches will have yoga classes in the basement of their church
and you can go online. Churches in Greensburg yoga and
Christianity see how they mix. They don't mix. 1 is light and
truth. The other one is darkness and
destruction. People don't realize when they
do yoga, they think it's interesting.
You know, just do stretching exercises.
Nothing wrong with stretching exercises.
But if you do stretching exercise under a a yoga teacher,
you don't realize, and many of them don't realize it, but the
positions you're sitting in are setting you up to be in line
with the energies of the Pagan demons.
In the Book of Revelation, Pastor Clark is taking us
through all kinds of events and happenings that are predicted
for the future. But for those who believe and
follow Jesus, there's much to look forward to in heaven with
Jesus. However, for those who are here
on earth during the Tribulation, there's all kinds of chaos that
will unfold. The Bible talks about an
Antichrist, a false prophet, and of course, that evil enemy,
Satan. Do you see how there are such
clever attempts for the enemy to disguise himself as God and even
the Trinity? The true Savior of the world is
God and how He comes to rescue through his triune nature God
the Father, Jesus the Son, and God the Holy Spirit?
Just like Satan tried to take over for God in heaven and was
cast out, Satan will try to convince people on earth that he
is the Triune God to be worshipped instead of the
legitimate God in heaven. It's an attempt, and although he
will capture plenty in his schemes, he will not win.
The true God wins, and Revelation unpacks how that will
all happen in detail. Be encouraged because there's a
way out for all of this madness that will ensue on this earth.
But you don't want to wait indefinitely to make that
decision about Jesus. We don't know when the church
will be raptured, and you want to be ready to be with Jesus.
To learn more about this, head over to calvarychapelonline.com.
We're so glad you've been with us today.
And if you'd like to connect further with this ministry, find
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app at calvarychapelonline.com. Be sure to join us for weekly
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This has been Living Waters of Grace.